25 years ago: Girl fooled by Michael Jackson impostor

City commissioners seemed satisfied with the Lawrence budget submitted by manager Buford Watson. The budget actually called for a decrease of .321 of a mill in property taxes for calendar year 1985. There was no evidence of the need to cut any services or functions.

A local girl had been duped into paying for what she thought was a Michael Jackson signature after Jackson and family appeared at Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium before more than 45,000. An impostor wearing Jackson-like attire had managed to dupe others, with cameras snapping. The good news was that the local girl was not taken for any money.

Ten years earlier, surveys indicated Lawrence needed 14 new doctors and at least two more optometrists. As for 1984, those needs had been met and there was evidence more medical people would be locating here to meet the high demands for health care. There still was a local gap, however, in the field of neurosurgery.